André Carrel, Transportation Engineering doctoral student, was interviewed by CBC radio Canada about the transit reliability research that he presented at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in January. His work was also featured in a blog in Governing magazine.
Carrel's research examines exactly what effect a transit system's unreliability has on its customers. While it's well-known that reliability is important to riders, it's less understood how, exactly, common transit problems impact the public's likelihood to reduce their ridership in the long-term. Carrel's advisor (and co-author on the paper) is CEE Professor Joan Walker. The third author is CEE undergraduate, Anne Halvorsen.
The paper is entitled "Passengers' Perception of and Behavioral Adaptation to Unreliability in Public Transportation."
See:
Top Reasons People Stop Using Public Transit (Governing)
Top Eight Reasons People Give Up on Public Transit (Forbes)